


New Blood

by Regole



Series: Blood of War and Calamity [1]
Category: Compilation of Final Fantasy VII, Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII, Final Fantasy VII
Genre: Gen, Mpreg, Post Mpreg, accelerated child development, adult chews food for child, bye Zack but I do love you I swear, feral SOLDIER, mention of Hojo because he’s his own warning, noncon mpreg, there’s no sex but it’s rape no matter how you slice it
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-08
Updated: 2020-03-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 22:01:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,344
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23064406
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Regole/pseuds/Regole
Summary: When Zack breaks out of the Shinra mansion, he takes with him Cloud and another of Hojo's experiments—an infant boy. Although Zack has no experience with babies, he does the best he can. The baby proves to be just as unusual as any of Hojo's projects, which in some ways is quite helpful. Some of the things the boy says, though . . . well, Zack doesn't have the time to figure them out. He's just glad the kid's not completely psychotic. Someone else can worry about the rest.
Series: Blood of War and Calamity [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1808377
Comments: 11
Kudos: 35





	1. The Earth Guardian

**Author's Note:**

> I’m super excited to post this, because I’ve been working on this series off and on for eight years (minimum). This fic is the first of several, but I don’t know that I’m going to officially string them together as such for now, and that’s caused a bit of a hiccup for me. Details in the post-notes of the next part. Let me know what you think!

Zack’s initial plan had been to leave him there, but it had not taken long for that to fall completely through. Zack just had not been able to turn his back on an innocent life.

Certainly not one that had come out of his friend.

So he had grabbed not only Cloud, but the baby. The baby Cloud had given birth to by Cesarean section, implanted in him somehow while he was too addled by mako to consent or protest. Zack considered it rape, because it obviously was, and hated Hojo all the more for it. The fact that Cloud _was_ mako-addled was probably the sole saving grace for the blond—it was unlikely that he did or ever would remember being pregnant. Hopefully.

Zack, as dazed as he himself had been and as little as he had been aware of, would never be able to forget.

It had been incredibly difficult to carry Cloud and the baby, but Zack managed. When he felt he could stop for a while, he risked leaving both of them well outside a town and went in to get supplies using the gil he had come across in the Shinra mansion. When he returned, he discovered that Cloud had managed to curl around the baby on his own, as if to keep the infant warm or protected or both. It was a heartening sign—proof that _someone_ was in that spiky blond head.

Smiling, Zack crouched in front of Cloud. “Looks like not even mako can stop you from being a good dad, eh?” It was not really talked about, but mako enhancements were not merely strength or the five senses—they were everything else as well; mako did not know or care what parts people wanted to improve, so it improved everything. That included things most people did not think about, such as parenting instincts, and things people may not have wanted “improved,” such as aggression problems. Cloud must have had one hell of a paternal instinct, for it to shine through even when he was otherwise a vegetable.

Zack did not know much about babies, but he knew they grew fast, so he had not bothered to try to get any baby clothes. Instead, he just diapered the infant and then bundled the boy in some tee-shirts he had bought before tucking the kid into a new rucksack alongside their food and water. “Some su- _perb_ accommodations for you here, kiddo,” he told the baby, and kissed his fingertips like a chef demonstrating the perfection of a flavor. “All _you_ need to do for dear old Uncle Zack is be _very_ quiet so we don’t get caught.”

* * *

The baby did keep very quiet—far quieter than Zack had imagined a baby could be. He barely cried, and _never_ when Zack was actively on the run from Shin-Ra. He was also incredibly patient with and tolerant of Zack’s absolute ignorance about babies, to the point of nearly dying early on. It had been Cloud, again, who had somehow determined that the tiny boy was starving to death and tried to take care of him.

Zack recognized that he was completely out of his element when it came to the kid. He took a hint from the infant’s glowing eyes and ended up buying a book, literally titled _The Care and Feeding of Mako Babies_ , to read by the evening campfires he made. From that, he learned mako babies needed way more calories than normal babies. There was also talk about finding the right kind of formula, something that Zack had never thought to bother with since the baby had seemed to be just fine with eating whatever came out of Zack’s mouth—helpfully pre-chewed for someone who did not yet have teeth. Zack never found anything in the book that explained that.

“Oh, who the hell am I trying to kid?” Zack sighed to the baby one evening. He pulled a minute chunk of a segment of his ration bar from his mouth and gave it to the infant, who accepted and swallowed it without hesitation. “You’re one of Hojo’s lab projects. You aren’t any kind of normal mako baby, guaranteed. I bet your development is accelerated. Maybe it’s true you would do better with formula, but you don’t seem to get tummyaches or throw up and Cloud hasn’t been trying to correct me, so you must be able to survive on regular food.”

The baby merely opened his mouth to receive whatever else Zack was willing to offer.

* * *

The baby’s development _was_ accelerated. A _lot_. He started holding his head up after two weeks, and sitting up after six. At nine weeks he was crawling, much to Zack’s terror; with no apparent sense of danger to alert him to threats, he simply wandered off and got into _everything_. For a while, Cloud was vaguely agitated. Then Zack bought the kid a harness and leash, which helped even though the boy quickly figured out how to remove it—the sound of the closures being ripped open would wake him every time. Cloud settled down.

At thirteen weeks, the baby’s teeth started to come in. He cried silent tears. Zack gave him a leather sheath for a boot knife that had been scavenged from a Shin-Ra army regular and advised him to chew on it. Three weeks after that, the kid abruptly blurted an extremely articulate paragraph about wanting jerky to eat because they always ate ration bars and he wanted something different for once. Though it was expensive and needed to be conserved, Zack did promptly provide jerky, thrilled—verbal communication was what he had most anticipated. And he learned how the baby considered Zack to factor into the infant’s limited world.

“Daddy Zack!”

It was actually really, really scary to be a daddy in any capacity. Zack had imagined having kids one day, a long time ago, but thanks to Aerith’s letter he finally knew just how long he and Cloud had been imprisoned. Sure, things could change, given time to settle and adapt, but he doubted being mentally eighteen years old with a mako-stunted twenty-three-year-old body was a good foundation from which to start being someone’s father.

Worse, though, was that by that measure Cloud was still mentally sixteen, and the baby _always_ addressed him as “Daddy.” It suggested an unusually high level of intelligence for the kid, for him to grasp that Zack was just a babysitter and Cloud—who was unable to do much to care for him—was the more direct relation, but it also put some expectations on Cloud that Zack was unsure the blond would be prepared for. Hell, _Zack_ would not have been prepared for them, and he had the benefit of not being wasted on mako.

“I’m not your daddy, squirt,” Zack kept saying.

“I know that,” was the response each time.

Eventually, he got used to it, and then he decided he kind of liked it. Zack did not know whether Cloud was the child’s biological parent or just a convenient surrogate, but there was an undeniable connection between them; it was nice that the baby freely included Zack into their family, when Zack knew that he could no longer go back to his hometown or parents lest he drag them into his mess and endanger them as well. Zack was mostly an extrovert and needed to interact with people to not go stark raving bonkers, but under the circumstances he could not risk showing himself too much—if only to protect Cloud while the blond was so vulnerable—so it was more than a bit reassuring to him to belong somewhere.

Zack found it revitalizing to have the baby to talk to. Other than the occasions when Cloud reacted dimly to some need of the boy’s, there was no indication that the blond was recovering from the mako poisoning. The baby became the one to provide nearly all of the human contact Zack required to keep his spirits up and help keep him moving toward Midgar to get Cloud to Aerith, and introducing the kid to the world gave him something to do in the meantime. It was not fair to put that burden on an infant, no matter how intelligent, but Zack really did not see that he had much of a choice. One day, though, Zack realized he had neglected something terribly important.

“Hey, squeaker, what’s your name?”

The baby, occupying the shoulder Cloud was not, looked at Zack and tilted his head. “Name?”

Zack spent a _lot_ of time defining words to broaden the infant’s vocabulary. It was a touch tedious, but he also saw it as a way for him to learn to reword things and be quick on his mental feet, so he said, “Yeah. Your . . . sound, I guess we can call it. The sound people use so you know they’re speaking to you. For example, my name—my sound—is ‘Zack,’ and people who know it will use it to identify me and get my attention. I’ve been calling you ‘squeaker’ and ‘kiddo’ and all, but those won’t work forever.”

“Why not? I like them.”

Zack chuckled. “I’m flattered, but . . . Those are the sounds I use to identify you, yeah, but they aren’t _your_ sound.” He frowned lopsidedly. “Look, usually a boy’s parents give him his name because he’s too . . . undeveloped . . . to make that decision for himself. But you _are_ developed enough, so you should choose your own name.”

The infant kicked his feet idly and considered that. “. . . Does Daddy have a name?”

“You haven’t been listening,” Zack teased. “I say Daddy’s name all the time.”

The boy frowned at his tiny knees, unfocused teal eyes moving but not seeing. He refocused on Zack after a minute. “Stormy?”

Zack blinked. “Do I say that so often?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I guess it’s understandable, then, but that’s a nickname, not his real name.”

“Nickname?”

“A name used instead of a real name. It’s usually friendly. ‘Squeaker’ and ‘kiddo’ are nicknames of a sort.”

“Oh. Then . . .” The baby thought about it some more. “Cloud?”

“That’s right.”

“But . . .” The infant looked at the sky. “I thought the fluffy white things were clouds.”

“They are.” Zack glanced at the baby and saw the incomprehension. “Don’t think too hard about it, kiddo. Sometimes parents choose to name their kids after other people or things. Daddy’s parents probably named him after the clouds in the sky for a reason.”

“A sound can mean two different things?”

“Oh yes,” Zack confirmed. “Often. Take my name. It’s actually a shorter version of my real name, and I’m not the only person who has it—I know of at least two guys and one girl in Midgar who have it too. We might spell it differently, and our real names might be different, but the shorter name still sounds the same when you say it. I haven’t met everyone in Midgar, so there are probably a bunch more with a name that sounds like mine. And that’s just Midgar. There are probably hundreds or thousands more all over the world.”

“Then how do you know someone’s talking to you?”

Zack laughed. “Sometimes you’ll recognize the voice as a friend and know they’re talking to you. The rest of the time, you just have to look in case it’s some stranger who learned your name.”

“How will I know that my name is the right name?”

“It’s not a matter of being right—it’s just whether you like it.”

“What if Daddy’s already picked a name for me?”

“Then he can tell you later, and you can decide if you like it better.”

That night, as Zack’s campfire started to weaken and signal him to get some sleep, he glanced to where the baby was cuddling with Cloud and dozing. When they had first settled for the evening, the infant had asked Cloud to give him name ideas, then snuggled with the blond and fallen asleep. He had been largely unresponsive since then, as though someone had drugged him. On one occasion, Zack had managed to bring him all the way around after a few minutes, only to be told that he was “interrupting their conversation.” So Zack had left him alone. Cloud’s eyes, generally dull and barely half open, had closed completely at some point and not opened since. Zack would have been worried he was dead if he were not breathing.

It left Zack the odd man out, but he could not begrudge them the time together. He monopolized the baby’s attention during the day, so it was only fair that Cloud get it at night; surely it was helping with the mako poisoning, even if only a little bit.

Presumably. Honestly, Zack had no idea whether they were really communicating or just sleeping.

Finally, Zack smothered the embers of the fire with some soil and went to lie with his fellow escapees. He was fine with the somewhat intimate contact, as it was something else that kept him firmly grounded, but there was a practical reason for it as well. Both the baby and Cloud would sometimes get up and wander; the baby had not actually done it since learning to speak, because at that point Zack had been able to explain that it was not safe to move around alone, but Cloud had developed the worrying habit of getting up and staggering away from camp, only to collapse somewhere alone. Zack and the baby seemed to take turns waking up after he had gone, but Zack was terrified that one morning he would wake up with just the baby and no Cloud—or worse, neither Cloud nor the baby anywhere in sight. To avert the possibility, he had taken to hugging Cloud tightly against him, which offered the side benefit of keeping the baby pinned between them and plenty warm—since the infant apparently could not thermoregulate well, if at all—even on cold nights.

Or rainy ones.

Zack groaned as the cold drops pattered down. “Come on, give me a break! Okay, Stormy, gimme a hug so we can give your baby a roof over his head. A sort of roof. Oh, you know what I mean.”

Except for walking, ever since they had escaped the Shinra mansion Zack had seen the _results_ of Cloud moving but never the motion itself, nor had those motions been in response to any prompt from Zack. That night, though, Cloud’s green-hazed eyes opened a little and his arm flopped like a drunkard’s. But that was enough to get it draped over Zack’s ribs, and Zack could not have been more thrilled. He laughed, relieved, and gave the blond a delighted squeeze.

“Thatta boy! I knew you could do it! You’re going to set the record for fighting off mako poisoning!”

Zack slept well that night.

* * *

“Daddy Zack.”

He heard the voice, but did not want to acknowledge it. He did not know what time it was, but it _felt_ like it had only been an hour or two since he had settled down.

“Daddy Zack,” the baby called again, very quietly, voice nervous, “I can hear them.”

That brought Zack around, though he was in bad shape. “. . . I’m up . . .”

The baby cleaned up the camp in silence while Zack attempted to clear the cobwebs of sleep from his head. He tried to listen for the sound that had caught the boy’s attention, but there was nothing. He was not going to doubt the kid’s senses, though; being a lab project of Hojo’s meant being something more than the norm. Plus there was the fact that the baby had not awakened him for nothing in the past, which suggested the matter was serious.

“Fuck, I hate this.” The baby brought the rucksack to him and helped get it onto his shoulders. “Thanks, kiddo. Let’s grab Daddy and haul ass.”

Two hours later, the baby was running silent operations like he had before he had been capable of speech, so rather than speak to Zack even in a whisper, he reached around Zack’s head to tap the shell of his right ear. It was a new gesture, but Zack still paused and focused his attention on that ear; sure enough, he could hear someone or something coming through the forest after them, and there was no outrunning the pursuit.

“We have to hide,” he muttered. The baby looked around for a minute, then pointed. Zack was hesitant to trust him _that_ much, but had no better idea than to fight, which he preferred to avoid given that Cloud remained so vulnerable. He dragged Cloud to what turned out to be a thorny thicket, and with a harsh grin tucked the blond amongst the tangle. “If they get us, Stormy, it’s going to hurt.”

With Cloud in the thicket, Zack got down and crawled deeper in, then dragged the blond after him while trying to avoid the worst of the thorns. Much too soon, Zack could go no farther, and he regarded the open end of the thicket with trepidation.

“I hope you’re right about this, squirt,” he murmured to the baby as their pursuers drew closer.

There was no response, but the baby adjusted his balance and position on Zack’s shoulder blade, spreading his weight as though to prepare to attack. Zack desperately hoped he did not, but did not dare to even whisper.

The pursuers finally arrived, and Zack cringed to hear metallic voices drone repeatedly, “S . . . cells . . .” He huddled on top of Cloud in the small space, arms pillowing the blond head to keep it out of the dirt, a tiny corner of his brain fantasizing that he could hide Cloud by doing so. If the Genesis copies tracked by scent, perhaps his own could mask Cloud’s enough to make them think he had left the blond somewhere else to lead them on a wild goose chase. Although, granted, that seemed to be giving their mindlessness maybe a little too much credit.

On his shoulder, the baby let out a soft, clicking growl. It was distinctly nonhuman.

Zack closed his eyes and, just to give himself something to do, mentally ordered the Genesis clones over and over to leave the area. Instead, for ages he had to listen to the Genesis copies—and possibly more intelligent entities—scour the vicinity. It was clear they knew Zack and Cloud were there somewhere, but could not pinpoint them. The baby kept shifting back and forth on Zack’s shoulder—small hands kneading with surprising power, little fingers crooked like claws—as though following the path of the nearest searcher. Zack could not tell whether the kid was hearing or seeing; all he was sure of was that he himself could barely see anything from within in the thicket, even with his mako-enhanced eyes, but he could hear plenty.

What had to have been hours later, Zack noticed the silence only when the baby whispered, “They’re gone, Daddy Zack.”

Zack lifted his head and listened, but heard nothing. Still, he did not move. “It could be a trap.”

“I’ve already checked.”

Zack started and barely refrained from shouting. “You did _what_?!”

“I was careful.”

“That’s not the— Fuck!” Zack shook his head, appalled, then stopped. “Wait. _When_ did you leave?”

“Half an hour ago.”

“And you just got back?”

“Yes.”

Zack felt a chill. He could not remember the baby’s departure or return. “Was I awake?”

“You looked like it, but you wouldn’t talk to me.”

Sleep deprivation did weird things to SOLDIER; it was likely Zack had passed out from exhaustion with his eyes open rather than just fallen asleep. Either way, it was an incredibly dangerous thing to do when the enemy was that close. But he was so _tired_ . . .

“I don’t think they’re far,” the baby added, “but they aren’t right outside.”

Zack frowned and looked down at Cloud. “. . . They’re waiting for us to come out.”

“We can’t stay,” the boy noted wisely.

Zack sighed. “You’re right, kiddo. If you’re sure they won’t nab us as soon as we poke our heads out, we should get moving and see if we can’t put some distance between us and them.”

The baby led the way out of the thicket, Zack following close behind with Cloud draped over his back. He got to freedom and stood, and as he adjusted Cloud’s weight on his shoulder Zack felt the baby climb him like he was a tree. Once on his mostly unoccupied shoulder, the boy sniffed the air like a dog.

“They’re that way,” the child whispered, pointing. He then pointed in another direction that was not quite the opposite. “If we go this way, there’s a cave we can hide in.”

Zack twisted to look at him. “How do you know that?”

“Mother told me.”

Zack just looked at the boy. He knew the infant was Cloud’s in one capacity or another, but he had not failed to notice that there was an awful lot of similarity to Sephiroth there as well. He also knew he did not want any kid who might be remotely related to Sephiroth to use the term “mother” given what it once had done to Sephiroth himself. “Mother?”

The baby pointed at the ground. “Mother.”

“You mean the planet?” Zack’s tension eased some when the boy nodded.

“And I’m her Earth Guardian, so it’s really easy for me to understand those things.”

Zack cocked his head, blinked, then shrugged. “So long as you’re right . . .”

* * *

Zack was not sure he was, at first. They had managed to escape detection after leaving the thicket, but then dawn came, then the afternoon, then evening, then night. The baby warned him when their pursuers got close and let him know if there was some other way they could go that would not take them too far from their destination, but in the end, Zack had to stop.

“You can’t!” the baby told him. “They’ll catch us!”

Zack groaned. Even though the thicket incident had been just the night before, the Genesis copies had been hot on their heels for over a week. He had not gotten much rest in all that time and was finally at the breaking point. “I can’t keep going like this, kiddo. I just can’t. I’m exhausted. I have to sleep.” The boy continued to protest quietly as Zack eased Cloud to the grass—in what he hoped was the shelter of a nook in the face of the cliff they had been wandering along the foot of—then collapsed beside him. “I won’t make a fire, okay? How about that?” Not that he had the strength or cognizance to do it anyway, but it was a good idea to forgo a fire if there was any concern they were being followed that closely.

“Daddy Zack! Please get up!”

“Sorry, squirt. Just give me half an hour and we can keep going, I promise.”

* * *

When Zack awakened, half a dozen bodies of Genesis copies lay in the mouth of the nook. Panic swelled at the realization that they had been found, and Zack checked frantically around himself. He saw the baby first, sitting on what he recognized a moment later to be Cloud’s back. He was desperately relieved that whatever had happened, the clones had not managed to make off with them; Cloud was a target because his mako poisoning meant the cells in him had not been settled, but Zack did not know whether the same applied to the baby.

“Kid!” he hissed, afraid other copies were nearby. “Hey, kid!” The boy turned from the mouth of the nook, and Zack felt a chill to see that the previously round pupils of the child’s teal eyes had gone vertical, cat-like, and cold in a way that most definitely reminded Zack of Sephiroth. “. . . Uh . . .”

The baby opened his mouth and throat and let out what Zack would have sworn was the roar of coeurl.

All the little hairs on Zack’s body stood on end. Confused and, frankly, terrified, he just stared as the boy drew in a breath that sounded distinctly reptilian in nature and roared again. Then another gurgling inhale, and the baby whipped his head toward the mouth of the nook as he belted out another roar.

“. . . S . . . cells . . .”

More Genesis copies had arrived.

Zack wanted to get up, but however much sleep he had gotten, it had not done much to help his fatigue. He fought to get his lethargic body to respond, but paused when he saw Cloud move. The blond struggled to his feet and stood knock-kneed, shoulders slumped and head low, the baby perched like a tiny gargoyle beside his head. Cloud’s fingertips dripped a fluid that Zack could not identify in the dark but would have bet a great deal was blood.

“. . . S . . . cells . . .”

Zack felt something buzz uncomfortably across his skin, then heard what seemed to be some sort of strange feedback noise; it grew in intensity until it was almost physically painful. He immediately connected it to Jenova’s cells, having encountered something very like it in the Shinra mansion during one of Hojo’s experiments, but had no idea how he should respond other than to do everything he could to retain his sense of self.

The boy let out a final coeurl-roar, at the sky that time.

Cloud swayed where he stood and came close to falling on his face, then hunched over like a predator and lunged at the Genesis copies. They tried to fight back, but . . .

With no apparent effort, Cloud ripped the head from each copy. With just one hand. He turned back to the nook, and it struck Zack suddenly that Cloud was probably not the one in control of his body; he looked _exactly_ like the marionettes some of Zack’s classmates had used once during a school play years back, barely able to support himself, posture slumped as though waiting to be manipulated with strings. Cloud’s shining mako eyes, mere slivers of green-hazed blue, swept slowly over Zack’s position. They stopped, stared at nothing, then clicked abruptly back to Zack and blazed with aggression.

Zack was half panicked and half despairing. He did not want to draw a weapon on a friend, but what he was witnessing was something that, once again, he did not know how to respond to. So-called “mako madness” normally presented in a way a layman might identify as typical insanity—hearing voices and seeing things that were not there. Animal aggression was not generally part of it unless the target instigated a conflict. “ _Cloud_!”

There was no indication of recognition.

The baby was there, however; though his pupils were still cat-like, the coldness was gone. He turned his head toward Cloud and closed his eyes. Cloud stumbled sideways a step and began to shiver violently, as though he was trying to shake himself apart. The glow in his eyes weakened. He took a few more steps, fell to his knees, then to all fours, then collapsed sideways like a dying animal. The feedback from the Jenova cells—or whatever it was—finally fell silent.

Zack did not move, afraid he would stir up whatever had just been in play. “. . . Squeaker?” The baby’s eyes opened as he leaned in, presumably to kiss the side of Cloud’s head. He then turned away and dropped into the grass to approach Zack on his own. As he got nearer, Zack saw that he was tense and sweating in the cool night air. “Are you okay, kiddo?”

Desperate, the boy gazed at him with perfectly normal, round-pupiled eyes. “Please, Daddy Zack, we have to go. Please. Please stay awake this time. I can’t . . . Daddy and I can’t keep them away for much longer.”

“ _How_ were you keeping them away?”

“ _Please_!”

Zack felt an exhausted sigh creep up into his throat, but resisted expelling it. “Okay, hang on . . .” He did manage to get to his feet, but his whole body ached. “All right, let’s get moving before I keel over.” He looked at Cloud. “He isn’t going to bite my face off if I touch him, is he?”

The baby seemed puzzled. “No. Why would he?”

Zack let the sigh come out that time. “Don’t worry about it.”

Indeed, Cloud was largely dead weight the way he had been so far; he appeared to have no issue with Zack touching him, so Zack was just fine with ignoring the new scent of half-rotten blood that was coming off the blond. With Cloud under control, Zack turned to the mouth of the nook. At first he felt alarm, because the headless corpses of the copies were moving, but then he spotted the baby pulling at them, clearing a path wide enough for Zack and Cloud to pass through without having to step over anything.

“Thanks, squirt,” Zack said as he moved through the space. “That helps.” He found himself not terribly surprised by the demonstration of the baby’s strength, which he had not witnessed to that point.

The boy climbed to Zack’s shoulder and pointed. “The cave is that way.”

“Are you _sure_ there’s a cave there?”

“Yes.” The baby looked at him. “Daddy Zack, please trust me. Once we get there, we’ll be able to rest for days. Even if they figure out where we are, they won’t know how to get to us.”

It sounded like heaven to Zack, so he went where he was told.

* * *

The reason the Genesis copies could not get to them was because even though the damn things were all but nipping at their ankles, as soon as Zack had pulled Cloud through the mouth of the cave, the baby jumped from Zack’s shoulder and came down into a knees-to-ears squat to bring both fists onto the cave floor with a beastly snarl. The ground shook and the cave entrance collapsed between them and their pursuers.

Zack activated a fire materia the boy had found somewhere and given to him, and used it to create in his right hand a fireball that he did not throw, effectively making a torch of it. He watched the baby study the fallen rock and test a few of the boulders. Apparently satisfied, the child turned to Zack and said, “We’re safe now.”

“How do you know?” Zack replied, feeling very trapped. “They can just blow that up.”

The baby scoffed. “Fire has no power over Earth. This type of rock is too heavy to be moved even with a third-tier fire spell. It will only melt together and grow stronger.” The boy pointed past Zack, deeper into the cave. “The other end of this system is on the far side of the range. There are no other openings on this side. Even if they fly, it will take them days to cross and discover the exact location of the exit. We can rest for two days, go straight through, and come out well ahead of them.”

“ _How do you know_?”

The baby merely said what he had said last time: “Mother told me.”

* * *

Though he said they could rest for two days, the boy set off immediately into the darkness. Zack had little choice but to follow as the child led the way deeper into the cave system; he was not too proud to recognize that he had less knowledge right then, so when the baby stopped and listened, Zack did as well. It was a little scary to have to move about in absolute blackness for the sake of conserving magic, but the boy’s barefoot steps did not falter and Zack’s hearing was acute enough to register even small shifts in direction.

In general, Zack felt there was no reason to complain about the situation, because the baby allowed him to move slowly; he found himself following the sound of tiny pattering footsteps, his eyes closed and his chin tucked to his chest as he half dragged Cloud with him. Zack was pretty sure there were more than a few moments when he was outright sleepwalking, but the baby guided him well and—somehow—kept them safe.

Even so, there was one alarming instance when Zack came abruptly to alert. His hackles were already up, the way they always got when he was being watched. The baby had stopped in front of him, though Zack could still hear the child’s small breaths. He reached back for Buster with his right hand.

“No,” the boy said quietly. “She won’t hurt us yet.”

“What is it?” Zack whispered.

“An earth drake.”

Zack had never heard of any such creature and said so.

“That’s because they’re almost extinct. Don’t move, Daddy Zack—her kind has lived in caves for so long that they lost their eyes. She’s going to get close to smell you, and you have to let her.”

“I’d rather not.”

“Please, Daddy Zack. I’m trying to get her to help us.”

Zack quickly became aware of something sliding across the dry stone floor of the cave, and he stiffened as something that sounded very huge sniffed at him, ruffling his hair. He tried to pull Cloud closer, doing his best to protect the blond in the oppressive darkness. Whatever the earth drake looked like, it sounded like a predator when it growled, and that set off every self-defense instinct Zack had.

“Please,” the baby murmured. “He’s not like the others. He won’t hurt you if you don’t hurt him, I promise, and I’ll make him leave them alone. He’s only scared because my daddy is sick.”

There was some silence, then a short growl of what Zack would have called warning, followed by a sound of slow retreat.

After listening to silence, Zack asked, “Are we going to live?”

“Yes.”

“Is she going to help?”

The boy sighed, disappointed. “She won’t help us. She says humans who smell like you killed her mate and first brood, and she doesn’t trust you.” He then added, “But she also says you impressed her, so she won’t stop us from passing through her cave as long as we don’t hurt her new brood.”

“Impressed her how?”

“By holding your ground, but not fighting back.” The baby added, “She’s going to tell her brood to leave us alone. If they attack us anyway, you _have_ to let me take care of it, Daddy Zack. Okay? If you don’t, she’ll kill you and Daddy and eat you.”

Zack wanted to turn back, but there was no way he could navigate by himself, even if he burned up magic. His gut roiled, filled with misgivings. He was not the sort to think he should not listen to a child, but the fact that he was the only one of the three of them who could actually fight made him uneasy as to how the boy would handle any conflict. Even so, he said, “If you say so. Lead the way.”

Because when it came down to it, the important part was staying away from Genesis, Shin-Ra, and anyone associated with either. If that meant dying in a cave and ending up food for baby earth drakes, Zack would not be too terribly regretful. He had gotten himself and Cloud and the baby to freedom, and that would have to be enough.


	2. Falling Short

The female earth drake had not been willing to help them, but the baby made friends with one of her brood, and according to him it said it would show them the rest of the way to the other end of the cave. Though he did it nervously, Zack eased Cloud onto the half-grown drake’s back—the baby standing by with the fire materia cupped in his hands and a flame floating over it to provide light—and let the lizard carry the blond for him. It showed an almost exaggerated caution as it did so, not turning its head since it could not see anyway, but clearly feeling out how Cloud’s unresponsive body shifted on its back. When it grew comfortable with the sensation, it began to move more normally.

Zack had never minded being the one to carry Cloud, but it was also nice to not have to for once, as it freed him to be more proactive about their safety. Not that there was very much to fear in a cave system inhabited by earth drakes, he was beginning to discover—they ate or scared off everything else.

The baby rolled the fire materia into one hand to free the other, then reached up with the empty one to grab Zack’s hand. The fire guttered out, and Zack felt the hard curve of the materia press into his palm. “Here, Daddy Zack. You can have it back now.”

“How did you use it, anyway?” Zack asked. Some magic was harder to learn than others, and nonstandard manipulations were harder still, but what were generally considered the “basic” ones—like fire, ice, and lightning—were not too complicated; it was reasonable that with practice and something through which the magic could be channeled, such as armor or a weapon, a child could learn how to cast. But the baby was a _baby_ , and more . . . “I never taught you how to cast magic, forget controlling it like that.”

“I watched you,” the boy explained in the dark.

Zack squinted at the blackness. “But magic is invisible until it’s filtered through a materia, _and_ it was dark when I did that. There’s no way you could recreate it from that.”

“Mercy is Fire,” the baby said. “He could have done it better, even without the materia. I just did what your body told me to do.”

“My body? Wait, who’s _Mercy_?”

“My brother—Mercy of Fire. One of my opposites and equals.”

Zack felt horror claw at him. “There were others in the lab?”

“No. They aren’t here yet.”

“ _They_?”

“Glory, Judgment, and Mercy.”

Zack frowned. “Weird names.”

“Are they?”

“A little. Not _bad_ ,” he added, “just _weird_. Does that mean you know your name now?” The baby had not mentioned names since Zack had told him to choose one.

“Illumination.”

“That’s . . . interesting.” More like the weirdest of the four. Zack could understand naming a kid _Light_ , but _Illumination_ was overachieving.

“Illumination of Earth,” the baby clarified easily. “I am the one who lights the path forward so that others may follow. Daddy named me Bahir.”

Zack thought he could feel a migraine coming on and decided to just let it go. Unfortunately, there were far more critical things he needed to focus on than the peculiarity of a child’s name. “So your name is Bahir? Is that what you want me to call you from now on?”

“If you want. I don’t mind the names you’ve been calling me.”

* * *

Zack had never been so happy to see daylight in his life, but he refrained from rushing out and possibly getting slaughtered by Genesis copies. “ _Finally_!”

The young earth drake stopped and sniffed, then gurgled.

“She says it’s safe,” Bahir reported. “We should rest here.”

Zack had been on such high alert in the cave that he had forgotten how little sleep he had been allowed. Exhaustion crashed over him. “That sounds like a great idea.”

The earth drake settled carefully against one wall, and Zack pulled Cloud from its back. He studied the face of the young creature; it was freaky to see it without eyes, though it still had small bumps that would have been eye ridges. He reached out and placed his hand on its flat but narrow forehead, causing it to jerk in surprise. “Sorry,” he said quickly. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I just . . . I’m really grateful for your help. Thank you.” He stroked its head a few times and the creature rumbled softly, in a way that reminded him of his mother’s cat’s purring.

Bahir joined him and stared intently at the earth drake’s face for a moment. “. . . She says she’ll stay with us until we leave and then tell her mother we’re gone. Her mother really doesn’t like that we’re here.”

Zack was too tired to argue. He also did not have the energy to be afraid of being eaten, which the earth drake could definitely do despite being a young of its kind, so he just lay down next to it—it was extremely warm—and held Cloud against him. “You stay close, okay?” he told Bahir. “Don’t wander off.”

“I promise, Daddy Zack,” the boy replied. “Go to sleep.”

* * *

With a few exceptions for certain physiological needs, Zack’s sleep was unbroken—the earth drake seemed to never move from where it had initially lain down, and Bahir never bothered him about anything. Whenever he did awaken, though, he always found Bahir had done something else to make things easier. First it was building a fire, then it was gathering and cleaning wild vegetables and tubers, then it was cooking a stew.

Zack was rested enough to think to ask, “Where the hell did you get a cooking pot from?”

The boy frowned a bit and said only, “People are thoughtless and wasteful. Or they were attacked.”

“You aren’t wandering around, are you?”

“No. The earth drake is helping.”

Zack glanced back at the eyeless reptile, which he was positive was in exactly the same position he had last seen it in. “It’s moved?”

“Yes. She’s an earth drake. The earth is comfortable to her, so she can be still on rock for a long time.”

Zack learned the earth drake had found some damaged and mismatched but otherwise functional bowls as well. Bahir dipped one into the stew and then handed it to Zack. “It’s not too warm,” he said, “but Mother says you won’t get sick from whatever else might be in it.”

Zack wished the boy had not said anything about that—he was hungry and still not entirely awake enough to have thought of the health hazards on his own. “Okay.”

After Zack was done, they coaxed Cloud into having some. When that team effort was successful, Bahir sat back and looked at both of them. “You need meat.”

Zack agreed. They had run out of jerky just before the Genesis copies had caught up to them, leaving no time to get more, and he was feeling weak as a result. But protein was imperative for the maintenance of SOLDIER physique; there were no vegan SOLDIER because nothing but meat had the bang-for-buck of the highest quantity in the smallest serving—no one had the luxury of eating plants every second of every day. The bad news was that as a result, Zack had no energy to hunt. It would suck hard if they ended up dying of a protein deficiency, but other than eating the earth drake or begging it and hoping it understood, they had few options. “I wish.”

Bahir looked to the mouth of the cave, then at the fire. “It will come.”

Zack could not imagine _how_ it would, but he _hoped_ it would.

* * *

It sure as hell did come, “it” being a small wildcat with an infected leg. Zack had been asleep when it had arrived, but Bahir had explained quietly that the earth drake had been kind enough to kill it for them—quickly, so it did not suffer.

Zack watched him for a moment. Bahir was obviously very upset. “Look, why don’t you go lie down with your daddy and get some sleep? I’ll stay up and prepare it for us.” Bahir nodded in response, his little chin wobbling with restrained tears. But he first climbed into Zack’s lap and pressed his face into Zack’s dusty uniform shirt. Zack bear-hugged him and kissed his head.

“It’s all right, kiddo,” he said gently. “You have to accept that whether it’s a plant or an animal, something has to die so that something else can live. That’s just how Mother Nature is. It doesn’t matter which you choose, because all things have an awareness; animals are easy to feel sorrow for because they have faces and move around, but if you look hard enough, so do plants—their blossoms are their faces, and they might follow the movement of the sun, count, or get so used to a certain experience that they stop treating it like a threat. So what’s important is that we don’t take pleasure in the killing, and we don’t hurt or scare what we kill any more than we absolutely have to. We do it quickly, and we be grateful.”

Bahir sniffled and looked up at him. “That makes sense,” he murmured.

Zack smiled. “Someone very special told me that. You’ll be able to meet her when we get to Midgar. But for now, sleep. Okay? You’ve been awake a long time.”

“Okay.”

“Thatta boy.” Zack ruffled the baby’s hair gently and saw the boy off to where Cloud was lying.

He waited until he was certain Bahir was asleep, then began the work of dressing the carcass. He offered a fistful of meat to the earth drake, given that she had been kind enough to not only help them through the cave but also kill the wildcat; she took a few sniffs, then turned away and bit a chunk of limestone from the cave wall. Zack watched her chew, then said with a shrug, “Have it your way.”

* * *

Finally rested up and well-fed, Zack—with Bahir doing so more enthusiastically—bid farewell to the young earth drake. She “watched” them, her head following the sound of their shuffling steps, until they were out of the mouth of the cave. When Zack glanced back for the last time, either she could blend into the wall so well as to disappear or she had left to report their departure to her mother, because he could no longer see her.

“Okay, scooter,” Zack said as he faced forward and hefted Cloud against his shoulder. “I am completely turned around now that we’ve been under a mountain. How do we get to Midgar from here?”

Bahir looked around and sniffed, then pointed. “That way.”

“That way it is,” Zack agreed, and set off, Bahir at his heels.

They walked for the rest of the day and camped for the night. The next morning, they came over a small grassy rise and found themselves at the edge of a dark, barren expanse—the wasteland around Midgar. The city was a tiny, misshapen mound of black in the distance. Zack had never really thought about it before, but it was a deeply saddening view all of the sudden.

“This is . . . not right,” he murmured.

Bahir looked back and up at him. “Mother’s dying because of what humans are doing to her. We’re a part of her and she loves us, so she’d never hurt us intentionally, but . . .”

“We need a spanking,” Zack said. “I get it. And I’m sure we’ll get one someday, one way or another.” He looked around a bit more. “We don’t have the resources to get there from here, though.” He frowned. “We need _way_ more water, at least . . . Damn. Should’ve thought of that and bought more canteens. How the hell are we going to get that far with just two?”

“Travel at night?” Bahir offered.

Zack looked at him blankly for a moment. “. . . Well, shit, kid, yeah, we could do that. Why the hell didn’t I think of that?”

Because they were almost to Midgar. To Aerith. Even with Bahir’s support, Zack was feeling the strain of being essentially alone; he desperately needed help with Cloud—needed somewhere safe they could hide, where he could feel secure sleeping and dedicate his energy to guiding Cloud out of the mako poisoning. He would never put Aerith or her mother in danger if he could help it, but he had snooped around the church a few times while waiting for Aerith to show up, and he knew the rubble behind it formed a warren of unoccupied chambers. After everything Zack had been through, none of the creatures in Midgar could do him serious harm; he could tuck himself and Cloud away in that rubble as needed, and come out into the church at other times. Aerith would probably insist on helping directly, but even if she did not, Zack would feel comfortable leaving Cloud and Bahir there while he went out to do some bounty hunting or the like. A bit tedious, perhaps, but it would keep them alive until Cloud came around, and then he and Zack could figure out what the hell they were going to do with themselves. He was not terribly thrilled by the idea, but if they had to they _could_ put Bahir in the care of Aerith and her mother so they could travel and find good work or whatever. Send money back.

Zack growled a little. “Even at night, though, there just isn’t any _water_. I don’t think we could stretch it that far even if we could find a good spring right here.”

He hated to think it, but if Bahir had not been with them, Zack would have risked it. He and Cloud were no longer growing and their food and water needs were stable; with whatever Hojo had done to them, Zack had noticed that both of them actually had _less_ need for food and water. But Bahir was a mako baby, and his needs made up for what Zack and Cloud could go without, and then some. The ration bars would last them that much, at least, as they were specifically designed to be cheap, self-contained meals and on top of that Zack had been fine with purchasing dozens at a time to ensure that they were well-supplied in case they got lost—the weight had been negligible. Water had been less of an issue to that point because both Zack and Bahir were able to sniff out cleaner sources and refill the canteens as needed. Crossing the wasteland, however, meant a simple dearth of water. Bahir would surely be able to empty both canteens in a day, then dehydrate within the next two. And that was even if he were riding on Zack’s shoulder the whole time.

“Fuck,” Zack muttered, stumped. He wished he had a pigeon or something, so that he could ask Aerith for advice. Hell, she might even know someone she could sweet talk into picking them up.

He retrieved his phone and stared at it. Kunsel was an option, but Zack did not want to get him in trouble; Zack had not needed Cissnei or anyone else to tell him that breaking out of one of Hojo’s labs would make him an instant enemy of Shin-Ra, which meant that anyone who helped him would be complicit.

“Daddy Zack,” Bahir said, “if we had a vehicle, could you drive it?”

Zack snorted and looked down at the baby. “Just who do you think I am, punk? I could drive before I even went to Midgar to become SOLDIER!” Bahir just pointed. Zack followed the gesture and spotted a yellow truck zipping right along, headed directly for the wasteland. “ _Yes_!” he yelped. He scooped Cloud into a cradle lift and bent down. “Into Daddy’s lap! Hurry!” He did not quite wait for the tot to settle, allowing Bahir to fall against him as he took off into the wasteland on an intercept course. “I’ll need you to be my mascot, buddy.”

“Mascot?”

“Just sit on my shoulder and be cute. The guy probably won’t stop for someone with a weapon like Buster, but nobody could resist your face.”

The wasteland did not really have any roads, per se, but there were various paths wide enough for vehicles to pass. Zack calculated the truck’s trajectory and stopped along one such path. He set Cloud carefully in the shadow of a tower of rock and slung Bahir onto his shoulder. They waited, and then the truck came into sight. That was when they started waving, and sure enough, once it was close enough that Zack figured the driver got a good view of Bahir, the truck came to a stop.

The driver leaned out the window. “What the hell are you doing out here? And with a kid?”

“It’s kind of a long story,” Zack said. “But we’re trying to get to Midgar.” He gestured back at Cloud. “My friend is dealing with mako poisoning; he doesn’t move that fast. His son here is a mako baby—kid’d never make it at that speed. You going anywhere near the city?”

“I’m on my way to Kalm,” the man replied, “but I can drop you off within a few hours’ walk. Not enough room in the cab for all of you, though, so you’ll have to take the bed.”

Zack grinned. “That’ll do. Thanks!” He gathered Cloud up and placed the blond in the back of the truck, put Bahir in Cloud’s lap, then hopped in himself. “All right!” Zack called as he sat down. He watched Bahir pull Cloud’s hands up—one over his hips, the other under his head—and wished he had a white or lighter-colored shirt to lay over the boy to keep the sun off him; without it, Bahir was going to overheat and need that much more water.

Bahir looked up. “Is it okay if I take a nap, Daddy Zack?”

Sleeping would lower his body temperature and maybe help keep him a teensy bit cooler. Zack smiled and scratched lightly at Bahir’s scalp with his fingertips. “You go right ahead and do that, squeaker. I’ll talk to Daddy until you wake up.”

It would only be for an hour or two, after all.

* * *

Cloud clawed for coherence and desperately tried to pull himself away from the cacophony of voices in his head. Zack needed him. Zack had always needed him—needed him to pull his own damned weight—but only in the past . . . however long it had been . . . had Cloud found he could focus for more than five or six seconds at a time. He had actually been able to lift his head and reach after Zack, an amazing coordination of muscle he had not been able to achieve prior; before that, it had had been merely one section of his body at a time, and exhausting to boot. What he had just done he had done slowly but fluidly, and there was less exhaustion than there was the simple weakness of years of muscular atrophy.

He realized there were tiny hands on his biceps.

“Daddy?”

He tried to turn his head to the right, only to have it sort of fall that way instead. He had a lot of work to do if he was going to be useful against Shin-Ra and anyone else after them.

His eyes met teal irises set in a small face, and the little head was topped with tiny spikes of platinum-blond hair. From a visual standpoint he did not recognize the boy except as a bigger version of the baby Zack had brought along, but in a way he could only describe as visceral he was aware that the child belonged to him. Was _his_ son. He did not know how that could be, but the urge to provide care and protection was undeniable in its strength.

“Wh— . . .”

Okay, so talking was still a problem too, but that would surely be easier to remedy than his weak muscles.

The child leaned against him, distressed, and fisted the material of his shirt. “Daddy, I don’t hear fighting anymore, but Daddy Zack hasn’t come back.”

Zack had tried to hide them. Against a helicopter, finding some crevice to duck into and then pretending to be a rock or shadow could serve well, but there were few places to hide when infantrymen were around to check every nook and cranny. It was entirely possible the fight was still going on, but that Zack had managed to lure Shin-Ra far enough away to be out of hearing range.

“We’ll look,” Cloud replied, and grimaced at how slurred his voice was. He tried to get to his feet, but could not even lean forward to do so.

“Daddy?”

He sat for a moment as he sought for the child’s name. He knew he had given the boy one, and the boy had told Zack, who had been using it plenty. “. . . Bahir.”

“Yes?”

Cloud extended his arm again, though his right instead of his left. “Pull. Can’t sit up.” He did not know the extent of the baby’s strength, but could remember enough to know that it was well beyond a normal kid his age.

“Okay.”

Bahir circled around in front of him, took his hand, and pulled. Sure enough, he was strong enough to shift Cloud out of his reclined position. Unfortunately, Cloud was unable to hold up his end and found himself getting up close and personal with his knees. Still, it put him in a better position than he had been in. Cloud placed his left hand on the barren earth and pulled his right gently away from Bahir to put it down as well. He tested the muscles in both arms, then leaned onto them when he decided they could hold his weight.

They could not.

“Daddy!”

Zack’s possible reaction to finding Cloud with his face in the dirt and his ass in the air might have been funny, but though they all desperately needed a laugh, Cloud was far too frustrated by his weakness to appreciate the image. He tried to push himself up, only to have his arms suddenly decide to function at full strength and push him into a lunge that left him lying completely prone and with a bruised chin.

“Fuck,” he snarled, too annoyed to be grateful that he had not shattered his nose.

His thoughts began to scatter as his coherence succumbed to the mako once again. He gritted his teeth and fought it, but was distracted a moment later by the sound and vibration of footsteps. Multiple sets, too, which meant not Zack. In a split second he shifted his priorities. With the last of his will, he kept himself coordinated enough to grab Bahir and drag the child under his body for protection. That done, he became lost again—at best an observer to whatever was going to happen.

Soon enough, a pair of boots rounded a nearby pillar of rock. Cloud waited to feel bullets pierce his back and shred his lungs and heart. Instead, a male voice asked, “What do you want done with him?”

Two more sets of boots approached and stopped near the first.

Cloud felt Bahir move under him, perhaps covering his own mouth to keep his silence. It was possible the boy was strong enough to jostle Cloud’s body and get himself captured, so the blond tried to hiss at the baby to be still. What came out was an astonishingly loud, incoherent moan. He faded completely then and was somewhat glad for it, as it meant he would not feel his death when it came.

He just hoped Bahir would survive.

* * *

When Cloud came back to himself—to an extent—he found he was lying in mud. Crushed beneath him, his child was crying softly.

“Bahir . . .” He got himself coordinated enough to lift his torso and free the baby, then dropped back down to his elbows to conserve energy. His head was much clearer than before—he must have really been coming out of the mako poisoning. Finally. “How long?”

Bahir sniffled and reached up to wipe the mud from Cloud’s face despite his tiny hands being even more muddy. “Minutes? An hour? I . . . I wasn’t . . .”

He trailed off, but Cloud did not actually mind. As smart as Bahir was, he was still just a baby—not even a year old. It was understandable that he was terrified. “It’s all right. You haven’t seen Zack?”

Bahir shook his head. “I can go look . . .?”

Cloud’s heart clenched at the idea of the little boy going beyond arm’s reach and out of sight, but he did not see that there was much choice; Cloud was in no fit state to carry out a search. Better that Bahir go so he could lead Cloud straight to Zack’s side. He nodded, but grabbed Bahir’s shoulder tightly. Far tighter than intended, probably, since Bahir winced, but the baby did not display any further pain.

“You—” Cloud fought to find the right words. “. . . You go slowly. _Quietly_. Eyes always moving. You see anyone not Zack, you run like hell. Away from here.”

“But—”

“You _run like hell_ ,” Cloud insisted, punctuating the command with a shake.

Bahir nodded reluctantly. Cloud released him, and Bahir pecked him on the cheek before skittering through the mud to the same pillar of rock the Shin-Ra troops had come around. He peeked around it cautiously, then disappeared past the curve of stone. Immediately, Cloud felt an overwhelming urge to follow and bring Bahir back to his side, to safety, but forced himself to stay put and save his energy. His instincts shrieked their panic.

A second later, Bahir pelted full-speed back around the pillar. He slipped in the mud at its base and crashed to his side, but bravely scrambled to his feet. He collided with Cloud’s shoulder and wrapped his arms around the blond’s neck.

“I think he’s dead,” the baby whimpered.

Cloud looped one arm around him in a somewhat awkward hug. “Show me.” Cloud did not know if he believed Zack was dead; the boy could have easily been mistaken.

Bahir obeyed, brave child that he was. Cloud, unable to make his legs work the way he wanted just yet, dragged himself along behind—slow and undignified, but steady—and when they were in sight of Zack, Bahir went ahead and knelt next to him.

* * *

Zack, who had been conserving his energy for some reason he did not know, heard the patter of little feet in the mud. In the next moment, Bahir was kneeling by his head. He smiled at the tot and raised his hand, but ran out of strength; fortunately, the boy was tough enough to withstand the weight of a muscular adult arm coming down on him like that. Zack weakly ruffled platinum-blond hair. “Hey there. Glad you’re okay. How’s Daddy?”

Bahir’s chin trembled too much to let him speak, apparently, but he nodded.

“Good.” Zack sighed, then regretted it when he felt the bullets burn in his flesh and tear it more. “I’m going to have to tag you in, kiddo—I need you to take care of your daddy from now on.”

Bahir whimpered. “No no no— We’ll go get help and you’ll be okay!”

“Nah,” Zack told him gently. He saw no point in lying to the kid—the child’s distress was such that he was clearly aware Zack was going to die. “You and Daddy should go to Midgar and get better. Get stronger. Everything will be f—” He grimaced against a wash of lancing pain and replaced it with a brand new smile as soon as he could, hoping to minimize the child’s trauma. “—fine. You’ll be fine.”

Bahir’s desperation gave way to despair. His face crumpled and he cried quietly as he grabbed Zack’s hand and nuzzled into the palm.

“Hey,” Zack whispered. He struggled to focus on the baby. “C’mon, don’t be sad. I’ll always be with you and Daddy, even if you can’t see me. Just do me one favor.”

Bahir sniffled and tilted his head.

“Be good. Be a good boy, and grow up to be a good man. Make your daddy proud and you’ll know that I’m proud too. Promise?”

The boy nodded weakly.

“Good. Now I don’t have to worry.”

Bahir cried more, silently, and leaned in to kiss Zack’s forehead. “I love you.”

“Love you too, kiddo.” It hurt to laugh, but he could not stop the chuckle that worked its way free of him. “Wish I could be around to see you grow. You’ll be amazing. I know it.”

* * *

For a moment Cloud just stared at Zack’s—his friend’s—corpse. He felt himself start to tip backward as his brain went fuzzy and almost succumbed to the mako yet again, but he managed to jerk upright and into coherence at the same time. He forced himself to focus on Bahir, who had curled into the curve of Zack’s neck and was crying into Zack’s bloody, bullet-ridden chest. Cloud briefly wished he was that small, so he could do the same. Then his survival instincts reared their head.

They had to get away.

Cloud staggered to his feet—on his own strength, for the first time in nearly a year—and heaved Buster up next. As much as he could, at least. He looked out at Midgar and fought back tears. If they had made it to the slums, even with Shin-Ra on their asses they could have disappeared easily. And even if Zack had taken bullets, they would have been able to get supplies to repair enough of the damage that his body could have done the rest. They had been so close, but those remaining hours of travel may as well have been years.

He returned his attention to Zack’s body. He wanted to bury his friend, but did not have the strength. Bahir might have had the strength and probably would have been willing, but with such small hands it would have taken ages, and Cloud did not see that he had any choice but to assume someone would want to collect their bodies once the report of their deaths had been made. And since the troopers had not found Bahir, who was likely supposed to be retrieved rather than killed, they were surely still searching for him; that was in contrast to Cloud and Zack, who had no doubt had “capture or kill” attached to their names, being as big and potentially dangerous as they were. Bahir, being a baby, was theoretically controllable by even the regular army and therefore a desirable target.

So Cloud murmured apologies, trusting Zack to understand his body being left to rot and get gnawed on by the local monsters for Bahir’s sake, and turned away to get off the mesa before he and the baby were cornered on it a second time. “We have to go, Bahir.” He took a dozen slow, shuffling steps, but did not hear the baby trying to catch up. He twisted to look back and saw that the child had not moved.

“Bahir!” he snapped, feeling an urgent need to vacate the area. After all, even if Shin-Ra did not return, at some point scavengers would arrive to do their job, and Bahir would make a nice appetizer.

Bahir gently pushed himself upright. He withdrew far enough to see Zack’s face, then leaned in and kissed Zack’s forehead again before nuzzling momentarily into dark hair. That done, he dragged his feet under himself and turned his back so he could catch up to Cloud, who waited and watched until the tot was at his boots. Bahir grabbed a fistful of Cloud’s uniform pants and choked on a soft sob.

It took some doing, but Cloud managed to kneel without falling on his face. He stroked Bahir’s head. “It’s okay to cry,” he said gently, “but do it quietly, and keep up. We still have to get to Midgar.”

Heaven knew Cloud no longer had the luxury of shedding tears, but Zack deserved them.

Bahir sniffled and nodded, and Cloud used Buster to lever himself back to his feet. When he felt steady, he started to walk again, dragging Buster alongside; that time, he heard his baby walk next to him and felt the slight tug on his pants that let him know Bahir was indeed right by him. He vowed to himself that he would do anything to ensure the boy stayed there.

 _Anything_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so, this was just supposed to be the prologue to a story centered around the original game, hence why it moves so fast (the others in this series won’t be like this). When it got to be thirteen pages I decided it had to be its own little ficlet, so here it is. The problem is that since the remake is, like, right here, I don’t want to do any further work on the full fic anyway until I get to watch some Let’s Plays and such and see what’s going on with it. But there’s nothing stopping me from finishing and posting the one that’s connected to _Advent Children_ . . . only that would put things out of order until the one for the game was finished, which may not be finished until who knows when, since we don’t know how many installments the remake will have. So that would be a long time in coming, as I’m also mostly scrapping the entire original game-centric fic that I’ve already written because of a glaringly cheap plot device and generally poor research on my part.
> 
> The point of telling you all that is to hear your thoughts. How much does it matter if I post the fics of this series out of order? The fics are standalone—sequenced mostly based on the compilation titles or ages of the characters rather than any overarching storyline—but there may be some character information that would be “spoiled” by posting a later fic first, or that might lack context because it’s from something earlier but not posted yet. The “spoiled” info would be largely for OCs, in case that might matter less. As someone who has never had a problem with spoilers because I spoil myself so that I’ll be writing with accurate info, I have no nose for this issue.


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